The Tribune

THE Mantas water polo teams, in final preparations for CARIFTA, competed in the South Florida International Water Polo Tournament (SFIWP) February 16-18.

Head coach Laszlo “Lotty” Borbely used the tournament as one of the final measures for selecting the 2018 Bahamas National Water Polo team that will compete at CARIFTA in Kingston, Jamaica, March 15-18.

The SFIWP had competitors from Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Texas, California, Washington DC, Missouri, Florida and the Bahamas.

Mantas took three teams to the tournament this year, including the under 14s (U14), under 16s (U16) and under 19s (U19).

This year, Mantas was excited to have two female water polo players, Kaitlyn Williams and Madison Deveaux, on the coed U14 team.

As always, the competition was fierce, but the Bahamas players were able to rise up to the challenge.

On day one of the tournament, the U14 team went undefeated against Miami Riptides winning 18-12 and against Trinidad Marlins A team 25-14. Winning their bracket on day 1, the U14 team headed into the quarter-finals on Saturday against the Miami White Caps B team.

The White Caps played a strong game showing this young team their first real competition of the tournament, however the Mantas were able to prove their training had paid off and won 11-9. This put them into the semi-finals with a 3-0 record.

The semi-final match had the Mantas face off against the US Naval Academy water polo team. Coaches Keleman Krisztian and Wandalee Burrows rallied the team to action against this unfamiliar opponent. In a nail-biting competition, the Bahamas suffered their only loss of the tournament, losing by one goal to Navy with a score of 7-8.

The U14 team played for the bronze medal on Sunday against the Miami White Camps A team. In a hotly contested match, the teams gave the crowd their money’s worth. The Bahamas took an early lead and never let it go to beat the Miami team with a score of 10-9 securing the bronze medal.

U16 boys also started out with an undefeated day 1 of tournament play. In their first game against Miami Riptides, the Bahamas won with a score of 10-8. The second game of the day was against Trinidad Royhill water polo club.

Giving everyone a preview of what to expect at CARIFTA, the Mantas team had an 11-9 win over the Trinidadians. Day 2 started with the Mantas playing Navy B team. Bahamas showed their dominance over Navy winning 9-3. The second game of the day put the U16 boys up against Loyola Aquatic Club from Puerto Rico. The two teams were very well matched and the Bahamas went into halftime down by one goal 5-6. The second half continued with rough play and some discussion with the referees.

After lots of back and forth in the water, the U16 boys lost 10-12. With a 3-1 record, the Bahamas was in a 3 way tie for first in their bracket, along with Riptides and Loyola, it came down to point difference and with a score of 10 vs 9 Loyola was determined first place in the bracket and the Mantas team would play for the third place medal.

On Sunday the Mantas went up against the Navy A team. After a close first quarter, coach Lotty rallied the boys. From that point forward it was pure dominance by the Bahamas team and they easily beat Navy 13-9 to bring home the bronze medal.

The U19 boys, under the leadership of team captain Saequan Miller, had a well played tournament. The team, consisting of several members of the U16 age group, faced tough competition. Friday started with the team playing against familiar rival, Encantada from Puerto Rico. The team rallied to a 7-5 win over the Puerto Ricans.

The second game of the tournament was against the Miami Riptides. The U19 team got off to a slow start against their opponent and were down 2-11 at the half. Unfortunately, the gap proved to be too great and the U19 boys lost 6-16.

Saturday, the team faced the Orlando Thunder. The score was 6-8 at halftime, and then the Bahamas immediately narrowed the gap to 1 with a score from Gabriel Sastre. The back and forth continued, however time ran out with the Bahamas down 10-12 in a heartbreaking loss.

Tournament play continued with the U19 taking on SLAP from St Louis, and the U19 boys suffered another loss, giving them a 1-3 record going into the finals. The final game against the Miami Beach water polo club had the U19 boys defeated with a score of 6-11.

After a tough weekend, the team finished the tournament in 12th out of 16 teams.

Overall, Lotty said he was quite pleased with the performances of the teams over the weekend.

Akeil Smith and Oliver Roberts were the lead scorers for the U14 team. Gabriel Sastre was Mantas overall MVP and Jayden Seymour was most improved player.

Lotty is encouraged that the Bahamas will remain CARIFTA champions for the second year in a row.